"Power" Project Aims to Develop More Efficient Solar Panels

(Innosuisse, September 09, 2020)

Within the context of the BRIDGE Program, proposed by Innosuisse and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), research teams from CSEM, EPFL and Empa have combined their efforts to develop and demonstrate a new approach for the development of high-performance solar cells. In this context, the "Power" project aims to develop a new generation of solar cells by combining emerging perovskite cells with market-proven CIGS and crystalline silicon cells, thereby paving the way towards the realization of cost effective solar cells with >30% performance, surpassing 25 years lifetime. Despite the challenges of working with completely new light-absorbing materials, which, according to CSEM engineer Arnaud Walter, can be very different in their structure and behavior from what has previously been used, "Power" is close to achieving technological success and is preparing to enter the industrialization phase.